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Friday, August 24, 2018

In his epilogue to Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon calls for a “new history of man,” separate from the fake “humanism” preached by colonial Europe, which was itself the negation of humanity. In the same vein, those of us who believe in the ideals of socialism must articulate a new conception of democratic internationalist politics informed by a radical humanism, to pit against the synthetic “anti-imperialism” of neo-Stalinists, Assadists and soft isolationists. We must also reclaim the poetry and vivacity of human rights that have long been sterilized by legalism and instrumentalized by liberal hawks and neo-conservatives for their own nefarious agendas.

One of our key challenges is combating what the French call "confusionism" and the Germans call the "querfront: the strange and unsavoury alliance between the far right and parts of the left. We can see elements of this convergence currently articulated around two key themes: the defense of national sovereignty against a supposed "globalist" elite and the rejection of key truths as a "mainstream narrative" that needs to be countered by amplifying alternative "truths".

While adherents of the querfront often do so in good faith, out of ideological conviction, its politics also serve the purpose of the Russian state in its hybrid war against Western power, and so the Russian state invests resources in amplifying confusionist voices and narratives.

Beeley also has a history of anti-Semitic statements, including saying “Zionists rule France” and that French-American journalist Shawn Carrie was likely an “Ashkenazi Jew” and labelled him a “Zionist agent” after he published an article questioning the dubious funding behind the pro-Assad activism of Bartlett and Beeley and their associates. Speaking to the New Statesman, Carrie accused Beeley of anti-Semitic abuse, claiming her purpose was to “slander journalists and stir up hatred”.